Recognition of Palestinian State by 3 European Countries May Encourage More, Says Palestinian PM

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa attends a press conference with Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares (not pictured) after their meeting in Brussels Belgium 26 May 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa attends a press conference with Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares (not pictured) after their meeting in Brussels Belgium 26 May 2024. (EPA)
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Recognition of Palestinian State by 3 European Countries May Encourage More, Says Palestinian PM

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa attends a press conference with Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares (not pictured) after their meeting in Brussels Belgium 26 May 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa attends a press conference with Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares (not pictured) after their meeting in Brussels Belgium 26 May 2024. (EPA)

The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority expressed hope on Sunday that Spain, Ireland and Norway's recognition of a Palestinian state would encourage other European countries to do the same.

Mohammad Mustafa, in Brussels to attend a meeting with international donors, said he was grateful that the three had effectively joined 143 other countries that backed a Palestinian bid to become a full United Nations members in a resolution earlier in May.

"We obviously want to have every country in Europe do the same," he told a news conference in Brussels with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

"So this is again hopefully a source of encouragement for these countries to take the necessary courageous step."

The Middle East conflict has exposed diverging views in the European Union. Some EU diplomats have said it is not the right time to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Mustafa said recognition now was vital to keep the peace process alive.

Spain's Albares said other European countries were thinking about it, including Slovenia that had started the process.

Spain, Ireland and Norway said they will formally recognize a Palestinian state on Tuesday to help secure a halt to Israel's Gaza offensive after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and revive peace talks that stalled a decade ago.

Israel has called plans for recognition of a Palestinian state a "prize for terrorism".

Mustafa said he would spell out to international partners three priorities for his authority - supporting the people of Gaza, including by restoring basic services, building the institutions of a state and stabilizing the financial situation.



Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza killed at least 10 people, while another hit a children's hospital, local health authorities said, taking Wednesday's death toll to 20.
Medics said the airstrike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms. There has been no Israeli comment on the school attack.
Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings, Reuters reported.
“We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire," said eyewitness, Um Mohammed Al-Hwaiti.
"People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: ‘Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.’ What can we say? Dear God, only,” she told Reuters.
Medics said at least 10 other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave. Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile also hit the upper building of the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed in the hospital strike.
Gaza's healthcare system is close to collapse due to an Israeli blockade on all supplies to Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March, when it relaunched military operations.
It says the blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as part of a deal that ends the war.
The health ministry said many Palestinian victims of Israeli military strikes remained trapped under rubble and on the roads, as rescue teams are unable to reach them because of ongoing bombardments. The attacks have also hit dozens of bulldozers and machinery used to clear roads, remove debris and to carry out rescue operations.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had hit 40 "engineering vehicles" that were used for "terrorist actions", including Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Some of those heavy vehicles were parked on the road and others inside the garages of municipalities.
“The machinery, because they open the streets and retrieve martyrs from under the houses. For a year now, some people have still not been retrieved from under the rubble," said Gaza man Nasser Mohammed Nasser, standing close to the mangled skeletons of destroyed bulldozers and trucks in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave.
Even before Tuesday's Israeli attack, Palestinians had complained they were short of heavy machinery, accusing Israel of refusing to allow the equipment into Gaza in violation of the January ceasefire deal.